A report of a study on six women with intellectual disabilities who moved from institutions into the community in 1985-87. The writers were involved in the process of integrating these women into the community. The bulk of the article focuses on these women's past lives before they were institutionalised. The writers found that the experience of institutionalisation created a life long discontinuity. The position of the women as family members was undermined by their diagnosis and institutionalisation. Keyword: Women